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The pouch contains 651 .063&amp;quot; (16 SWG / 1.6mm) 1/4&amp;quot; (6.35mm) rings, and about 31 3/16&amp;quot; rings of the same wire diameter. A strand of leather lacing and a toggle-like device are used to open and close the pouch.

Please note that the method I used in this pattern is more or less, backwards. Most of the time a person would want to start at the bottom and work their way up. In order to do so, start with one of these tutorials:European 4 in 1: Expanding Circle (Core Method)European 4 in 1: Expanding Circle (Fill in Core)
Once your expanded circle reaches a reasonable number of rings around, which will vary according to how big of a bag you want to make, simply stop adding expansion rings, and continue the E4-1 in standard fashion until the pouch is the desired size.

Step 1:
First I made a small sheet of European 4 in 1 that is 15 rows wide by 31 columns long.

Step 2:
Next I sewed up the sides to make a continuous sheet.

Step 3:
Now was the time to start forming this sheet of chainmail into a pouch. So I added a row using some contractions. One ring would go through 3, the next two would each go through 2, and the next through 3, until the row was complete.
Unfortunately I didn't plan this too well mathematically and when I got to the end of the row, I had one spot where the rings go through 3, then 2, then 3. This row contains 23 rings.

Step 4:
On the next row, I simply used a 3-2-3-2-etc. algorithm, where every other ring was a contraction ring. Again, at the end of this row, there is an inconsistent spot where the pattern goes 3-2-3-3-2-3. This row contains 15 rings. The coffee mug shows this in detail:

Step 5:
Every ring on the row that is next added is a contraction ring except one. There are 8 rings in this row.

Step 6:
The next ring to be added finishes off the bottom. It goes through all 8 rings in the previous row. It is the most challenging ring to close.

Step 7:
What I had now was this:

I wasn't satisfied with the height of the pouch, so I added four more rows of 31 rings each to the top.

Step 8:
The next row is one of 3/16&amp;quot; ID rings. I decided copper would add a nice touch to the pouch.

Step 9:
On the next row, I used 1/4&amp;quot; ID copper rings and skipped every other connection that would otherwise be present in a European 4 in 1 row. This helps the pouch to be pulled closed without there being too big of a hole in the top.

Step 10:
Next I fed a strand of leather lacing through each of the rings in the last row, and used a pull cord toggle which was to act as the pouch opening/closing device.

The pouch is complete.

Closing:
This article explained how to create a simple European 4 in 1 pouch. You can make a pouch like this one using a different size by increasing the size of the sheet that is made in step 1. If you do this however, you might need to add a few more contraction rows in the bottom of the pouch. It will take a bit of experimentation to get it right.

Original URL: http://www.mailleartisans.org/articles/articledisplay.php?key=170

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